Former President Donald Trump on Saturday characterized warnings that his victory in 2024 would represent a threat to democracy as a âhoaxâ and âDemocrat misinformation.â
The former president, who faces federal and state charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, said in a speech hosted by the New York Young Republican Club that President Joe Biden âis the real threat to democracy.â
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âCan you believe it? This is their new line, you know,â Trump said. âHere we go again â âRussia, Russia, Russia,â âMueller, Mueller, Mueller,â âUkraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.â One hoax after another.
âBut no, Iâm not a threat. I will save democracy. The threat is Crooked Joe Biden,â Trump said. âAnd thatâs what it is, itâs a hoax. We call it now the threat-to-democracy hoax, because thatâs what it is.â
The former president, who said last week that he wouldnât be a dictator if reelected âexcept for Day 1â to address the border and domestic oil production, complained about how those remarks had been characterized, saying he never claimed he wanted to be a dictator.
âI said I want to be a dictator for one day,â Trump said. âAnd you know why I want to be a dictator? Because I want a wall ⌠and I want to drill, drill, drill.â
Trump said later that Democratsâ attacks regarding democracy were a âdesperate and shameless attempt to distract from the monstrous abuses of power the left is committing before your very eyes.â He pointed to more than a dozen state-level petitions to remove him from the 2024 ballot, citing a clause of the Constitutionâs 14th Amendment barring those who have engaged in âinsurrection or rebellionâ from office.
Biden and Democrats have warned that electing Trump again in 2024 could erode the foundations of American democracy. The president said at a fundraiser Saturday in Los Angeles that âthe greatest threat Trump poses is to the democracy.â
Trump himself has talked about exacting âretributionâ against political enemies if he wins in 2024, and his campaign has rolled out a series of policy proposals that would expand presidential authority over even nonpolitical levers of the federal government.
Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who lost her seat to a Trump-backed primary challenger last year after she participated in the House select committee that probed the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, said in a recent CBS interview that the nation would be âsleepwalking into a dictatorshipâ if Trump wins next year.
Asked about Cheneyâs warning, Trump told Foxâs Sean Hannity during a town hall last week that he wouldnât be a dictator âexcept for Day 1â to address the border and domestic oil production.
Those remarks kicked off a flurry of criticism. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said during the partyâs fourth primary debate that Trump was âan angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as president because he wants to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him.â
Former Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat, also weighed in on Trumpâs âdictatorâ remarks during an interview with CNNâs Jake Tapper on Sunday. âI saw the other day where he pledged to be a dictator on Day 1, and you kind of wonder what itâll take for people to believe him when he tells us who he is,â he said on âState of the Union.â
Trump on Saturday called Democrats âsick peopleâ and said they âdonât care about our country.â
âThey think the threat-to-democracy hoax will save Biden from having created the worst inflation in our countryâs history, a fragile economy that may soon end in a depression,â the former president said.